Hen harrier chicks will be removed from their parents and reared in captivity this summer in a controversial “brood management” scheme to placate grouse moor owners.
Removing young hen harriers is designed to prevent concentrations of the bird of prey on grouse moors, where hen harriers feed on young grouse, and reduce the illegal killing of species, which is on the brink of extinction as a breeding bird in England.
Critics said the trial was appeasing the grouse shooting industry rather than tackling the illegal persecution of the bird.
Natural England, the government’s conservation watchdog, announced its brood management scheme would begin this summer with “active” hen harrier nests meeting the criteria for chick removal and landowners willing to be part of the trial.
The chicks would be raised in captivity and then released into suitable habitat away from grouse moors. The hen harrier tends to nest in clusters and proponents of the scheme argued that brood management provided reassurance to grouse moor owners that concentrations of hen harriers would not build up on their moors, predating grouse populations. This, it has been argued, would stop the illegal killing of the bird.
Tony Juniper, the chair of Natural England, said: “Conservation and protection of the hen harrier is at the heart of what we are doing in licensing this trial of brood management. This decision takes forward but one element in a far broader recovery strategy for the species.
“Natural England is ready to take the next careful step, aware that the licensed activity and the research will rightly come under close scrutiny from the scientists on the advisory group, from ourselves as the licensing authority and by those both supportive of and opposed to this trial.
“We, as an organisation, must pursue all options for an important bird such as the hen harrier, so that our children may enjoy this majestic species in the wild.”
Natural England’s operations manager, James Diamond, said a scientific advisory group would monitor and evaluate the trial to “ensure we learn as much as possible from this trial about the potential for brood management to be used as a conservation technique”.
Brood management is part of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs’ hen harrier recovery plan, supported by conservation groups including the International Centre for Birds of Prey and the Hawk & Owl Trust. Other conservation charities, such as the RSPB, have pulled out of the plan in objection to brood management.
A similar scheme to remove the eggs of threatened curlew and to rear young in captivity is under way in partnership with the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust.
Eggs – which would otherwise have to be destroyed to ensure aircraft safety – are being rescued from curlew nests close to runways on Ministry of Defence land, with the chicks later released into other suitable habitat in England.
